Too Little Too Late: Nokia to Launch a 'Droid

[SiempreTuna]

It seems that, at least 3 years too late, soon-to-be-Microsoft Nokia are finally about to release a phone running Android

Unfortunately, the phones will be low-end and aimed at developing markets so we're probably not going to see them in Europe or the US.

The reason soon-to-be-MS Nokia are going with Android is that the low end hardware is incapable of running Windows .. and the version of Android is heavily customised to make it look very non-Android and to remove many Google apps .. so all in all, probably not of much interest to an Android fan anyway.

If only they'd gone the whole hog and started producing high end Droids years ago

 

[Italo]

If Nokia had entered the android scene, we might have had an android phone with a great camera by now. None of their Windows phones seem to be pushing it on specs (like Moto X or lower). They're just optimized really well. I do really like their Windows hardware, though.

 

[!on]

Too true, camera is one of the primary functions of a phone today (besides phone, music, internet).

I'm sure Nokia still have their fans, & I think they should've progressed with Symbian. The whole Android vs iPhone thing is getting tedious.

 

[Crashdamage]

Nokia knew that Symbian could never be a modern, fully capable mobile OS. Nokia should have continued with the plan they had before Elop and M$ took over, which was to further develop Maemo/Meego/Tizen (or whatever you want to call it today). A real, full-stack Linux distro in your pocket, the most powerful mobile OS of all.

 

[Tesla12]

It's never to late. I just think they should make the phone high end and not on the cheap end. Nokia is known to have good quality camera phone and that alone will win over many.

 

[Crashdamage]

As long as Microsoft owns Nokia there is zero chance they will build a high-end phone running anything but Windows.

 

[funkylogik]

Yeah its just not gona happen now which is a shame.
I wish Nokia luck though with WP :beer:

 

[nickdalzell]

Nokia makes a damned good budget Windows Phone, i think they would literally kill with an Android phone. my Lumia 520 works pretty well so far.

 

[funkylogik]

Yup my wifes budget Lumia is really smooth and optimised, just very limited but im sure WP will evolve nicely.
Ill be sticking to open source firmware though

 

[Slug]

From our own Phandroid news site:

Report: Nokia X will debut at Mobile World Congress running Android with a Windows Phone twist

 

[SiempreTuna]

Nokia makes a damned good budget Windows Phone, i think they would literally kill with an Android phone. my Lumia 520 works pretty well so far.

I think there's budget and budget here: Nokia were selling a lot of very low end feature phones in developing markets but more recently, these have been losing out to low-end Droids.

WP simply won't run on that kind of super-low end hardware so Nokia had to go with an Android fork in order to have something in that part of the market .. which is basically the only part of the market it has been doing relatively well over the last few years.

 

[Shocky]

If they can release a Android phone with latest specs (1080p, 2GB, Snapdragon 800) with 4.5"+ display and one of their high end cameras they will make allot of people very happy, so long as they don't mess around too much with the interface.

 

[Crashdamage]

If they can release a Android phone with latest specs (1080p, 2GB, Snapdragon 800) with 4.5"+ display and one of their high end cameras they will make allot of people very happy, so long as they don't mess around too much with the interface.

That absolutely, positively will NOT happen.

 

[Shocky]

That absolutely, positively will NOT happen.

I agree it's highly unlikely, but I can dream.

 

[nickdalzell]

to be honest, after more than a month with my WP (for work mostly, boss couldn't get a call through on my S3--its radio has died. gets data but no calls) i'm quite impressed. all the good stuff is there--nice screen with 260 (?) ppi, really nice UI (it is default inverted (lighter colors on black background) SD slot, microUSB charger, excellent battery life, uncluttered status bar, and even a music subscription service with unlimited downloads similar to Google Play Music (which Apple still lacks--you still pay per song). I have yet to find any app I can't get there (well, two or more games but most games I play on my phone were there.). I was really happy how much is just built in. an offline GPS with turn by turn, an actual WORKING app store (sorry, but Google Play Store sucks. I still can't get it working on any of my devices and when it does work, it's ultra slow and forgets things, or incorrectly deems my device incompatible) and BlackBerry style email sync. I do like the Facebook integration and integration with other services and no need for a separate app. it doesn't feel very limited once you get into it, you can even sideload apps from the web too. don't have to use the store. other than a really limited-looking UI it still looks and feels Androidish.

I still have my S3, I use it for personal use, mainly as a hotspot or contacting other family/friends with it, but I can't make or receive calls anymore with it. I can still text and use data but that's all I got. even if a call does connect, it's extremely horrible quality and others have issues hearing every other word you say. a shame really, I never dropped it or got it wet. but my job does have a habit of destroying phones, usually with dirt contamination.

Getting inspiration from WP8 I did manage to fine-tune Android to not pop in icons all over the place up top (am I the only one who hates the cluttered notification area? am I the only one who prefers only relevant icons up top like battery, signal, and maybe indicators for missed calls?) and disabled unneeded sync and deleted Google Play Store, and it's been much better than it used to be. my Nexus 7 is my e-reader and web browser, and my 10 still excels at games.